The trip to Serrington ended up being a pleasant rest from all the other stuff going on. After spending another day with Vivi and Safrah, I flew over to meet Nymph. I also gave her the arcane speakers I had prepared for the mantis and our starling body. I enjoyed some good food at the restaurant Brilda worked at with Nymph and Foxy joining in as well as two dwarves they had befriended. I had little to do with them but they were pleasant company.

I left again just after noon and spent another day with Vivi going through everything I would need for the trip. I would take some more materials than last time, just in case I had to craft something on the go. Some iron, gold, brass and even a bar of thaumium that I took from Safrah’s storage. With her permission, of course. I also took a few vis crystals of each of the primal aspects.

Other than that, I mostly kept things as they were. My pile of fruit tea was reduced, only two small bags of it remaining. The standard suite of thaumaturgical stayed with me, Thaumonomicon, wand, crucible, heating plate, and a bit of salis mundus. Most of the magical powder I left with Safrah, though. If I needed more I could just make some. Beyond that, I only kept the minimum of necessities. My arcane speaker, a dozen coins that would most likely be completely useless, and my supersensory matrix.

I thought about preparing some more magical tools or weapons but decided against it. The only thing I would want was a runic matrix but I still had no idea how to get my talons on an eldritch pearl. Without that, I could not make a second matrix. Even if I could, it would fill my storage almost completely and I still had to bring along an alchemical furnace, arcane alembics, and warded jars. The infusion altar was simply not a mobile setup.

That made it especially important to find if I needed to craft something with standard infusion for my journey. I spent almost half a day paging through the Thaumonomicon with Safrah going through hers as well. I ended up finding a few interesting foci for my wand. One simply created a temporary light source, potentially useful but not really necessary with my highly perceptive eyes.

More interesting were the offensive options. I still had the lightning orb I had liberated from that one ork thaumaturge way back when. It was slow-moving but created an area of control that I could use to keep threats at bay. Other than that, there was a more streamlined lightning focus. It literally shot a lightning bolt at a target, a bit like a certain Sith Lord judging from the description. There were offensive foci for fire and ice as well. The former basically a flamethrower and the latter shooting large orbs of ice like oversized hail. I almost decided to make it before I realized the normal version only shot one orb every second. Much too little to be of real use to me.

Of course, I could modify all of the foci. Improve them or slightly adjust their effects. I could, for example, make the lightning bolt bounce between multiple targets or adjust the cone of the flamethrower to be narrower or wider while increasing or decreasing the heat. There was even an option to make the lightning orb shoot an inert projectile that would, instead of striking everything near its path, create a localized lightning storm where it landed.

After going into it a little deeper, I decided to wait with making any of them. They were all based on quartz around a more active gem like emerald or diamond. Vis crystals were then added to create an effect. I simply bought enough materials to make a focus or two whenever I needed. The higher-level options that needed an infusion altar were much less useful to me since most of them needed an eldritch pearl as well. I only skimmed over them. One I remembered was called ‘Focus of the Nine Hells’ and could summon bats or creepy crawlies that were on fire to swarm your target. I only hoped it would not create sentient life.

After preparing what I thought I would need, I decided it was time to go.

“You’re good to go, then?”, Safrah asked.

It was early morning. I decided to leave at this time so I could take a stop at the goblin village with the small hungry node and talk to Jaka, the [Thaumaturge] and Kmika, the panther.

“Yes. Everything should be ready.”

“Come back if you need more”, Vivi said. I had made her an arcane speaker as well. The item proved incredibly useful for sapient animals. Maybe I should start to sell them after all this was over with?

“I will. If I’m not too far out.”

“And stay safe!”

The ocelot nuzzled the side of my head, messing up my feathers. I preened the fur on the back of her neck in return.

“Yes”, Safrah said, “Please stay safe. I know you’re strong but… it’s the Deep Green. I only heard that it’s full of monsters and we live so far away from it.”

“I saw some of what I might have to expect the first time I got close. A giant snake big enough to swallow a dwarf whole. I’ll be careful.”

They both nodded.

“Good”, Safrah said.

She patted down the feathers Vivi had just messed up.

“Have a good journey.”

“Thank you.”

And with that, I was off.

----------------------------------------

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The goblin village was still a mess. The hungry node, while small, had destroyed over half of it when it came into existence. Now, it had not spread much more. Still, the old huts around the crater were not in use anymore. With one exception. A single building had been expanded and repurposed. I saw a little vis leaking from inside. That had to be where the [Thaumaturge] had made her home. The remaining goblins, no more than thirty, had rebuilt about a hundred metres away.

After circling for almost fifteen minutes, Kmika showed up. The panther had deactivated her [Camouflage]-equivalent Skill and watched me from a hill a little out of the village. Just as I started to drop, I saw Jaka leaving her hut as well.

I made sure to land a few metres away from the predator. She was always ready to pounce.

Once the [Thaumaturge] arrived, I finally spoke up.

“Greetings”, I said, “It’s been a while.”

Jaka’s eyes widened ever so slightly. Kmika’s left ear twitched.

“It has”, the goblin said, “What do you want?”

“I learned some things. I might need your help in the near future.”

She scoffed.

“You? Our help? This little ruin has something you want when you can just fly anywhere?”

They exchanged a glance.

“The hungry node.”

I nodded.

“Do you know about the bottom of the world?”, I asked.

“The what now?”, Kmika asked through her [Telepathy].

That had managed to throw off even the panther. I took my time explaining the situation. Bit by bit, Jaka turned more and more thoughtful. Kmika only narrowed her eyes. I could not tell if she was angry or nervous.

Once I finished, silence fell for half a minute.

“I see”, Jaka eventually said, “I get why you’d want to access the node. But you’d bring a ton of people here. To research Kmika’s node.”

The panther snarled.

I nodded.

“Exactly. If everything goes well it won’t be a hungry node after the fact. If not… I don’t know what will happen. That’s why you need to take part in the research and the experiments.”

“So we have no one to blame but ourselves…”

I tilted my head.

“That was not quite my intention. More on the line of ‘don’t regret what you could’ve changed’.”

With a thump, Kmika dropped forwards onto her chest. The panther sighed.

“We need help”, she said, “I need help.”

Jaka nodded grimly.

“The node changing is influencing her. It’s a problem.”

“Would you consider letting it get destroyed?”, I asked.

The panther hissed.

“No. Yes. I don’t know. Maybe.”

“What about no longer being its Guardian?”

This time she jumped me. The swipe of her claws just barely missed me even though I did not take action to avoid it.

“It might be necessary if we have to taint it. I don’t know what the effect of that is on its Guardian.”

“I know”, she growled, “I don’t want to.”

I nodded.

“That’s good enough. We have a lot of time to figure out the details. I trust you’ll be able to understand the researchers and give your input. It will be useful.”

Kmika laid back down and groaned.

“Thank you, Fio”, Jaka said quietly.

I inclined my head.

“How did the node even turn into a hungry one?”

“I’m… not sure. I worked with it. I tried to make it strengthen my Skills. I must have made a mistake. Most of my notes were destroyed so… I can’t guarantee I remembered everything.”

“I see. That’s fine. One more thing. Do you speak Ordugh?”

“I don’t.”

I scrunched my facial feathers.

“That’s a problem…”

I took my Thaumonomicon out of my storage and opened it on a basic entry about vis crystals while focusing on the most common language.

“Here, take a look.”

The goblin was confused for a second before she realized what was going on.

“I’ll let go of the letters. Try to pull them up yourself.”

Jaka nodded.

It took another thirty minutes before she figured out the trick. She still had her own Thaumonomicon, or rather, a new one same as the old. That would be enough to learn the language in her own time. I also gave Kmika her very own arcane speaker. She was less excited than I expected. Not much of a talker, it seemed.

“That’s it, then”, I said, “Until next time.”

Jaka nodded and Kmika growled softly.

“We will meet again”, the goblin said.